Your private live-streaming blueprint. Grab this interactive checklist with everything you need to consider before, during, and after your live stream.

Securely connect with consumers and employees in real time with private live streaming. Whether hosting virtual events with potential and recurring customers or internal training for new hires, there are many ways a company or creator might use private live streams.

Live streams are a highly engaging medium, with 27.7% of global viewers watching live streams on a weekly basis. Furthermore, the live-streaming industry grows consistently year-over-year, with a market estimated to reach $247 billion by 2027. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the essential security features you’ll need to host private live streams, how to easily set one up, and tips for promoting your exclusive event.

What Is Private Live Streaming?

Private live streaming is real-time video content for an exclusive, permitted audience. Unlike video chat, it is a one-way stream. Viewers are able to interact with you, though to what extent will depend on the streaming platform. 

On social media, a live stream is available for anyone to watch. However, businesses often require private streaming capabilities for events with limited access.

A versatile medium, live streaming offers the ability to mimic the personability of video chat or create larger gatherings with audience involvement.

Use Cases for Private Live Stream Events 

Businesses use live streams to foster stronger relationships with customers and employees. We’ll discuss options below; as you read, consider which types might benefit your business.

• Paid or Exclusive Events: Sell private live-stream events or offer customers exclusive access to live streams.
• Webinars: Generate new leads by creating an informative presentation that provides value to potential customers.
• Conferences: Host a virtual industry conference with notable speakers and relevant workshops. 
• Classes: Share knowledge relevant to your product or service in smaller groups, providing the opportunity for personalized assistance. 
• Product Debut: Introduce new products and offerings live to build excitement with your most engaged audience.
• Video Premiere: Broadcast a pre-recorded video file and host a viewing party.
• Product Demos: Showcase the features and benefits of your product, how to use it, and answer any questions. 
• Internal Training: Lead new hires through personalized training while offering insight into company procedures.

Security Features for Private Live Streaming

A highly secure private live stream will use multiple privacy and security features to prevent unwarranted access at multiple levels. Securing a live stream occurs in three steps:

1. Control Access

• Password Protection: Require a password to access your live stream. For internal business security, consider using single sign-on instead. 
• Video Login: Secure your live stream with login credentials. Embedded videos can require viewer login, or use our video websites to allow access to all content. 
• Whitelist Access to Content: Control what IP addresses and geographic locations can access your live stream. 

2. Prevent Leaks & Theft

• Signed Embed Codes: Ensure your embed codes are not stolen and reused for external viewership.
• Restrict Domains: Ensure your live stream only loads and plays when embedded on specific websites.  

3. Audit Viewership

To track individual viewer access during a live stream, combine live analytics with login protection. This way, you can track who logged into your video website during the live stream.

How to Set Up a Private Live Stream Event

1. Determine Your Goals

The goal of your live stream determines the optimal marketing approach for promoting your event. To formalize your goal, consider the following.

Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

A private live stream can target any stage of your sales funnel, from awareness through retention. The stage you are targeting will greatly influence the content and level of sales promotion during the event. 

Is your goal to retain customers or capture leads? Are you stoking desire by showcasing new features or building trust by sharing knowledge? Determine your broad live stream goal. Are you building awareness, nurturing leads, converting buyers, or retaining customers? 

Ideal Outcome

An event can have multiple goals. A virtual conference, for example, aims to bring industry leaders together to share their experiences and insight, with a goal of reaching 3,000 unique viewers. 

But the ideal outcome, in this hypothetical example, is to generate leads for a paid program through the hosting organization. Therefore, the organizers will measure the success of the live stream by the number of emails captured.

Now we’ve refined the goal: capture 300 new email addresses during the live stream — and many more after by repurposing the recorded live stream content into paid advertisements and short videos. 

Example: A live stream to build awareness for your brand might focus on sharing knowledge and converting viewers into newsletter subscribers. While a live stream meant to convert subscribers into paying members would spend the final minutes (at least) of the event promoting your products and offering a live stream-only discount.

Internal & Public Events

For events without a potential customer, such as employee training or town hall meetings, consider what information you want viewers to receive and the ideal outcome of the private live stream. Create a measurable goal to track the influence of your private live streams.

2. Target the Ideal Audience

Determine who the ideal audience is for your private live-stream event and use that information to inform your marketing strategy and whether the event will include a direct sales pitch. You might consider age, location, gender, profession, pain points, and media sources.

For exclusive paid events, create multiple customer profiles and take a more traditional approach when selling the live stream as a product.

The audience for your live-stream event might be broader than your target audience. For example, you may create a class to build trust with new leads and encourage conversion. The class is open to paying members and anyone else who joins the email list. Therefore, the class and its content will cater to one segment of your audience, while being valuable to many. 

When marketing to a target audience isn’t as relevant (such as for employee training), it’s still wise to consider the viewers and plan your live stream content accordingly. This will help you determine the optimal length of the stream, the graphics to include, and what interactive elements would benefit viewers. 

3. Formalize Event Content

On-demand video leaves room for error. You can film multiple takes, get lots of B-roll footage, and make magic happen in editing. A live stream is less forgiving; therefore, it is important to prepare your content, visuals, and transitions ahead of time.

You might think of a live stream as a talking head (or two), but you can create overlays, include presentations, and play on-demand videos to add interest and encourage longer engagement.

Graphics for live streams can be created in photo editing software (such as Canva) and added to your live stream with your encoding software (OBS Studio is free).

You can write a script for your live stream or create a presentation outline with talking points. Consider assigning time blocks to content sections. This will help you present the information in a timely manner and maintain engagement. Consider how you might stay on track, either with assistance from coworkers, silent alarms, or visual cues. 

Tips for an Engaging Live Stream

• Provide Structure. When promoting the live stream, be upfront about the length of the event and provide an overview of what to expect. 
• Be Responsive. Your live streams don’t need to feel like a one-way street. Respond to live feedback and comments without veering too off-topic. 
• Use Overlays & Other Visual Elements. Your live stream can include visual elements, including live stream overlays, additional graphics, or on-demand video.
• Add Interactive Elements. Add chat and imbue gamification into your streams with quizzes, mini-games, and challenges. Consider ways to motivate your audience to actively invest in the live stream.
• Focus on Relationship Building. Live streams can be highly effective for converting subscribers into paying customers. However, creating strong relationships will create better long-term results than centering quick sales. 
• Leave Room for Q&A. Include time for broader questions that might take up more time with a Q&A section at the end of your live stream. When done right, this encourages people to engage with the entire presentation.
• Embrace Your Personality. Even professional live streams should feel casual and welcoming. Present with authority but let your personality shine through. 
• Use Analytics to Improve. Analytics reveal more than views. Review the data to see the average seconds watched, total minutes watched, average engagement, and more, especially when shared as an on-demand video after the event. 

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4. Set Up Equipment & Software

Professional live streams can be produced with a minimal set-up or the most advanced equipment available. Like on-demand video, you can improve your production quality with investments in sound equipment and skilled employees. Here are the essentials you will need. 

Essential Equipment for Live Streams

• High-speed Internet Connection: You will need a stable connection for streaming. 
• Video Source: This can be a pre-recorded video or live video capture. For live capture, you can use:
  • Webcam: This is the simplest solution for novice broadcasters.
  • External Camera via USB Video Capture Device: Though more complicated, this option allows you to stream much more high-quality visuals.  
• Lighting and External Microphone: While technically optional, these are recommended for a more professional look and feel.
• Processor: This equipment will process your video(s) and other media sources into a ready-to-stream feed. There several options here, including:
  • Computer and Encoding Software: Convert the video feed into a format that can be streamed through a player online. Alternatively, some platforms simplify this process, allowing you to stream directly from your browser.
  • Standalone Streaming Hardware: For more simplified streams without additional graphics, music, or other more professional production elements, many devices (such as a switcher or cameras such as Mavic drones or GoPros) allow live streaming straight from the units themselves.   
• Live Streaming Platform: Provides the player and tools to deliver your live video to viewers online (i.e. public steams via social platforms or more professional platforms like SproutVideo).

For step-by-step instructions on setting up this equipment, read our guide on producing a professional-grade live stream or check out behind-the-scenes of live stream production, complete with an equipment list and technical setup. Lastly, our four-part “How To Live Stream” video series is another great place to start for beginners. 

5. Employ Security Features

The security measures you use to protect the privacy of your live stream will be set up through your live streaming platform and, potentially, your website portal. 

For example, you might use login protection with domain restriction to secure your private live stream. You can create membership logins through your website portal (Squarespace, Ghost, WordPress, etc.) or use SproutVideo to easily create a hosted video website. 

Then, through your live streaming platform, use domain restriction and limit access to your website URL. The live stream will only be able to load and play on your website. 

These two security measures combined ensure that only those with login credentials can access the live stream, and it protects the embedded code by preventing the live stream from playing outside of your website. 

You can tag individual users and review account activity. This helps make sure only those with permission have access to the content. But it also provides a way to track who engages and to what extent. 

6. Spread the Word

How will people register for your event? You can use specific software built to register participants or simply create a segmented audience within an existing email list. Additionally, it’s important to promote when the event will happen and whether playback will be available. 

How you choose to market your live stream will depend on the type of event you’re hosting. For example, a top-of-the-funnel live stream to inform potential customers and gather leads could be promoted across your marketing channels. 

Note: You will also need an event landing page. This is where viewers will watch your live stream. If you are using login protection to secure your event, this is the page you will secure and the domain to which you will limit viewer access.

Ways to Promote Your Live Event

• Teaser Video: Showcase your topic, speakers, insights, or anything that would motivate someone to sign up.
• Social Content: Create at least two weeks of content to effectively promote your event. Optimize the content for each of your social media channels.
• Blog Post: Expand on the details of your event, what people can expect, how to sign up, frequently asked questions, and more.
• Podcast: Snag a guest spot on relevant podcasts to boost awareness and leverage audiences outside your sphere.
• Email Campaign: Build promotional email campaigns that inform current subscribers about the event. Email campaigns to drive substantial registrations.
• Paid Promotion: Ads are one of the best ways to reach beyond your owned and earned audiences to find new targeted prospects.
• Influencers/Speakers: Hire influencers to promote your event. For events with speakers, encourage them to share the event with their audiences. 

Pro Tip: Use email to send event reminders to participants 24 hours before and on the day of your private event. These are crucial for driving attendance. Consider adding a teaser video or event landing page to peak interest.

Internal Event Promotion

Private live streams are often used for internal company meetings, whether to review strategic shifts as a remote team or share quarterly revenue reports. To inform employees about upcoming live events, you can use reminders, team communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, and email to share access information or login credentials. 

7. Perform a Test

Perform a test to locate potential bugs or hiccups in your setup. This will help make sure your live stream goes smoothly. It is essential that your security measures and streaming equipment work the day of the live stream. Therefore, prepare to go live using the same equipment, software, and security measures that you plan to use for your private event. 

Ask colleagues or friends to help you test every aspect of your live stream. Encourage them to try and break through security or find a loophole. Additionally, test the features of your live stream: autogenerated subtitles, pre-recorded videos, presentation slides, etc. 

Once your test has concluded, watch the playback (this is automatically generated as a private on-demand video in SproutVideo). Reviewing the playback video will allow you to check the audio and visuals, review any slides or transitions, and review your on-camera presentation.  

8. Go Live

Since you need encoding software to live stream, you can set all of this up before going live. You can create an identical live stream to test (as recommended above), then embed the live stream on your website days or weeks before going live. This allows you to set up and schedule email campaigns (with working links) ahead of time as well.

Your streaming platform lets you customize the look and feel of your stream. With a SproutVideo account, you can customize the player’s appearance, poster frame, title, and description. Prior to the live stream event, add any necessary features such as lead capture, a playback call-to-action, security measures, and more. 

On the day of your event, connect your streaming platform to your encoding software (or browser streaming tool). You will create a new RTMP feed/steaming server using the RTMP URL and stream key provided by your live streaming platform. As such, your encoding software is what you will use to start and end the live stream. While some live streaming platforms bypass encoding software, it provides significant control over your live stream and additional customization options. 

Once connected, you can start the broadcast. Before it begins, the SproutVideo player will display your poster frame and a message to waiting viewers that the live stream has not yet commenced. 

Now you’re ready to host your private live-stream event! For complete step-by-step instructions, read our guide on setting up your live stream.

9. After the Event

Once your live stream has ended, consider if and how you will share the playback video. Companies will often promote the live stream playback to the registered audience that did not attend live. This email is generally sent within 24 hours after the event. On the SproutVideo platform, your live stream is automatically saved as a private video. You can embed the video directly in an email or landing page. 

Another common practice is repurposing the video content from the live event. This allows you to continue sharing valuable information or promoting a product that was featured. Repurposing  the content allows you to create multiple marketing assets from a single video. Use cases include short videos for social media and your website, advertisements, “how to” videos, blog posts, and product demos.

Finally, review your analytics. Note any obvious drop-off points and consider how to improve viewer engagement and retention for the next event. You can also review the domains and geographic locations where the live stream was broadcast and the types of devices used.

Private Live Stream Checklist (Free)

The checklist contains a logical order of events but does not need to be followed chronologically. It is split into five sections to make it easier to keep track of the various moving parts.

Get Immediate Access

We have a wealth of material to help you plan and launch live events. Check out 10 questions to ask before launch to refine your ideas, see how we pulled off our own live stream in this behind-the-scenes look, and learn how to nail your on-camera delivery in under four minutes.

The post Private Live Stream: How to Host Exclusive Events Online appeared first on SproutVideo.

You can share an explainer video across marketing channels; it is the most valuable content asset for the top of your sales funnel. 

Whether creating an explainer video in-house or writing a creative brief for a production company, brainstorming video ideas can be challenging. That’s why we put together a list of the 10 best explainer video examples — some of which you may even remember. 

This complete guide will also cover the types of explainer videos and how to make one (step-by-step). Here’s everything you need to create a stellar explainer video.

What Is an Explainer Video?

Explainer videos showcase a product or brand and the problem it solves, generally in less than 90 seconds. 

They build brand awareness, explain how the product works, and include a call to action.

Businesses use explainer videos for their homepage, landing pages, email campaigns, paid advertisements, sales outreach, and on social media. 

Think of the explainer video as your company’s elevator pitch. What experience does your product or service create for your customers? How are their lives transformed? 

An explainer video succinctly illustrates the value proposition of your product. It answers ‘why?’ — instead of focusing on features (the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of your product). 

For this reason, explainer videos more easily persuade consumers by presenting the ‘before’ and ‘after’ transformation they will experience with your product or service.

The Benefits of Explainer Videos

Video is one of the most powerful marketing strategies a company can use to build awareness and sell products or services. Explainer videos inherit and amplify these benefits.

• Landing pages with embedded video get 86% more conversions than text-only pages. 
• In a survey of nearly 600, 96% of people said they have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service.
• 66% of people prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a short video. 
• 52% of marketers cite that video produces the highest ROI for content.
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when conveyed by video, compared to 10% when read in text. 

Types of Explainer Videos

There are three major types of explainer videos: live-action, animation, and screencast. When choosing the type of video to create for your brand, consider which type will showcase your product best. 

Note: Alternatively, you can combine animation and live-action for the best of both worlds. We did this at SproutVideo to introduce our hosted video websites!

1. Live-Action Explainer Videos

Live-action videos use actual footage and are generally more expensive to create. Producing a live-action explainer video can require hiring actors and crew, choosing a location, shooting the footage, editing, and more. Some businesses choose to hire a video production company because of this complexity.

These types of videos tend to encourage more engagement than animated explainer videos. If brand awareness is a primary goal, producing a more significant return may be worth the added expense. Every company’s product or service is different, and live-action video may not be the most effective way to tell every story.

2. Screencast Explainer Videos

Screencast explainer videos highlight the user experience and how a product (like software) works. The screencast demonstration may incorporate animation or live-action footage to add versatility and personality to the video.

While this may be the most accessible type of explainer video to produce, it’s still important to focus on creating a high-quality result. 

3. Animated Explainer Videos

There are many types of animations an explainer video might utilize: motion graphics, 3D, 2D, and even whiteboard animation. Depending on the animation style, this can be a professional yet low-cost option for creating an explainer video. 

For some brands (like the Grammarly video featured below), combining live-action with on-screen animation helps tell the whole story—whether creating it yourself or hiring an explainer video company.

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10 Best Explainer Video Examples

Writing a winning script and knowing your audience are the elements that matter most when creating a successful explainer video. To help spark inspiration for your brainstorm, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best explainer video examples. 

10. Slack

Creating a wordless explainer video is a challenge. But wordless videos can produce a genuinely interesting and versatile result for the right product. This Slack video, for example, relies on animation and music to tell its story. 

From the moment our main character wakes up, the speed of modern communication overwhelms them, and the music reflects this frantic pace. Yet when they open the Slack app, everything changes. 

The video illustrates how it feels to use Slack for communication. Slack recognizes that overwhelming communication is a common pain point for its users. Without a word of dialogue, this video promises viewers an emotional transformation if they use Slack. 

9. Amazon Go

The first Amazon Go store opened in Seattle in 2018. But a year prior, the concept of a cashierless store was unheard-of. Amazon needed to explain the idea to future potential customers. And they did a great job with this video by showcasing what it would be like to shop in an Amazon Go store.

The video also generated a lot of conversation, both about the technology and societal implications. While the success of these stores is still to be determined, this explainer video perfectly illustrates the vision Amazon has for cashierless shopping. 

8. Crazy Egg

Now 10 years old, this Crazy Egg explainer video introduced a lot of businesses to the idea of heat maps for increased conversions. It’s rare for a B2B marketing video to go viral, but this one did because it solves a major pain point. Businesses of all sizes can quickly relate to the frustrations outlined, and the video thoroughly showcases its solution. 

7. Grammarly

This Grammarly explainer video targets a specific segment of its audience: students. The video combines on-screen software previews with real-life student situations to show how the program helps students present their ideas professionally. 

It also showcases that schools support students using Grammarly to help with their workload. In this way, the ad uniquely advertises Grammarly to both students and universities that might offer discounts on or free use of premium accounts for students. 

6. Dissolve

Another B2B example is Dissolve’s award-winning explainer video, which went viral in 2014. The ad features various stock footage examples with a tongue-in-cheek voice-over originally published as a poem by Kendra Eash on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. As the video concludes, we learn that all the footage is from Dissolve’s stock library. 

It’s arguably risky to poke fun at the people (i.e. marketers) who will buy your product, but Dissolve’s video pulls it off with flying colors. The video worked so well that the company launched a follow-up ‘Generic Millenial Ad’ a few years later, which also garnered significant success. 

5. Nest

Nest’s video showcases an understanding of its audience’s pain points and highlights the product’s features as a solution. The video is a 2D animation that includes real images of Nest’s products. The juxtaposition of these elements creates a viewing experience that is novel and more engaging than illustrations alone. The video is slightly longer than the average B2C explainer, but Nest uses that time to showcase the in-depth automation of a Nest-connected home. 

4. Ahrefs

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a confusing topic. Furthermore, it can be difficult to showcase the value of SEO in a way that business leaders will appreciate. The way Ahrefs’ explainer video tackles this challenge is exactly what makes it so impeccable. 

Within the first 15 seconds, the video showcases the power of SEO: increased traffic to your website equals more sales. The video continues by highlighting some of the specific aspects of SEO and how simple it is to improve the SEO of your company’s website with the software.

3. Dollar Shave Club

Personality is everything in this video. The production setup is minimal; filming occurs in the Dollar Shave Club offices and warehouse. Mike, the founder, moves through the building describing the product’s benefits while silliness ensues all around him. 

The video concludes with Mike, a bear (well, a person in a bear costume), and one of the warehouse employees having a dance party in front of the American flag. Ultimately, it’s a great example of combining entertainment (specifically, humor) and information to sell a product. Seven years after Dollar Shave Club released this video, it sold for $1 billion.

2. Lyft

Sometimes, the non-traditional approach wins. This video highlights the importance of explaining a product’s existence rather than showing off its features. Lyft ran its seven-minute short film of an explainer video as an advertisement, and thousands of people in the video’s comment section said it made them stop and watch instead of pressing ‘Skip Now’. 

1. Poo-Pourii

We’d be remiss not to include the best explainer video ever made. Poo-Pourii was already a successful product when this advertisement launched its brand awareness into the stratosphere. 

The video received tens of millions of views (currently 44 million). To capitalize on this success, the brand released multiple other ads with the same actor over the next few years. Poo-Pourii went from being a best-kept secret to one of the most popular air fresheners on the market. 

How to Make an Explainer Video (Step-by-Step)

Let’s walk through each step of making an explainer video. There is no correct way; remember who you’re communicating with and why your product or service is important. The best explainer video is sincere and effective at presenting your company’s solution to a problem. 

1. Determine Production Budget

Before you even brainstorm explainer video ideas, it’s essential to determine the budget. We broke down how we spent $4,000 creating our explainer video. But there are various options depending on what type of video you want to make and the money you can spend.

How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?

Video production costs are estimated per minute. The typical explainer video will be 60-90 seconds long, while B2B explainer videos tend to run a little longer at 2-3 minutes. Therefore, it’s essential to consider this aspect of creating your video when writing the script or getting quotes from production companies. 

How Much Do Explainer Videos Cost?

Companies with larger budgets may hire a production company to create the video. A production company works with you on the best way to highlight the most critical information about your product and make it stand out engagingly. 

The average cost per minute in the industry is $1,000-$10,000. However, this can significantly vary depending on the company, with the average quote hovering around $8,500 for a 60-second video.

Alternatively, a company may hire a professional animator or use its in-house video production team. While these alternatives present some lower-budget options, a company should expect to invest in its video to produce a return on that investment.

2. Write the Script (or Creative Brief)

The script sets the tone for the entire video. In the explainer video examples above, we saw many approaches. Some brands, like Match.com and Poo-Pourii, use shock value and humor to delight and surprise while selling their product or service. 

Lyft takes a different, emotional approach by catching viewers’ attention with music and good vibes, leading to a heart-warming and engaging story that keeps viewers watching for seven minutes. 

Other companies recognize the need to convey a pain point or problem directly. Ahrefs, for example, immediately starts the video with, “Here’s the problem…,” and quickly outlines its solution. On the opposite end, Dissolve showed off its product rather than discussing it. In this case, the product reveal at the end feels like another punchline within the funny video.

The script is a vital piece of the project to get right. Even if your company plans to produce the video in-house, consider hiring a professional copywriter to write the video script. 

What Should an Explainer Video Include?

Four main elements are needed to successfully convey your message when writing your explainer video script or outlining the creative brief. 

1. Illustrate the problem or pain point.
2. Showcase the solution: your product.
3. Explain further details and how it works.
4. Present a call to action.

Even if your video takes a non-traditional approach, like the 7-minute dialogue-free Lyft video, hit these four beats to create a compelling explainer video.

Combine a well-written script (even if it includes no words) with an insightful understanding of your customers’ pain points and your company’s inventive solution to create a successful video. 

3. Produce the Explainer Video

There are multiple options when producing an explainer video. Let’s consider the differences between a business that hires a production company versus one that creates its explainer video in-house.

Working with a Production Company

If you’re working with a production company, part of the pre-production process will include aligning on the creative vision and determining the steps to bring it to life. 

Once this process is complete, the production company may take 4-6 weeks to film or animate the video before producing a first draft. 

Once the project moves into the editing stage, it will be time to collaborate on music (unless already decided) and record a voice actor if needed. 

Live-Action In-House Videos

This stage will be more intensive for companies producing live-action in-house video. You must:

• Hire a director, actors, and film crew.
• Choose a location and ensure proper staging.
• Create a filming schedule and shoot the footage.
• Hire and record a voice actor (if needed).
• Edit the footage and add music.

There are many creative ways to stay on budget when producing your video. Check out our crash course on video production to learn more. 

Animated In-House Videos

Companies producing animated videos must choose the type of animation: 2D, 3D, motion graphics, whiteboard, etc. Whether working with an employee or hiring a freelancer, create a storyboard for the animated video before spending the money to have it animated. 

As with a live-action video, you may need to record a voice actor. You will also need to edit or hire a professional editor to add music to the video and ensure a quality final result. Read our guide on producing high-quality animation videos to learn more. 

4. Market Your Explainer Video

When your video is complete, it’s time to create and launch a marketing plan. Follow these three easy steps to launch your explainer video. 

1. Choose A Video Host

Where will you upload the video?

Many companies upload videos to YouTube for the general public and their video hosting platform. A video host allows a business to embed the video on its marketing website ad-free with customized branding, in-player calls-to-action, and post-play screens. Learn more about the marketing tools included with a SproutVideo account here.

2. Create Your Marketing Plan

Plan to share your new explainer video across marketing channels. Celebrate the launch of this video by debuting it to your audience on your: 

• Homepage or landing page
• Email newsletter
• Blog
• Social media 
• Community thread (i.e. Discord, Meta Group)
• Live stream event
• Paid advertisements 

Make a list of all the channels your business uses to communicate with both customers and your target audience. Choose a launch date and create marketing materials to celebrate the launch of this new explainer video. 

The most important part of this step is determining how you will direct traffic to this video. Using past and current data to estimate views and set conversion goals can be helpful. If your website is capable, consider performing an A/B test with and without the video. 

Note: When filming your video, consider whether you will crop the video for social media platforms. Read our article on optimizing videos for social sharing for helpful tips.

3. Launch Your Video Across Channels

When launch day arrives, it’s officially time to integrate the explainer video into your brand and website. Before launch, ensure your team has coordinated marketing materials and publishing times. Once published, it’s time to celebrate. 

It’s highly likely that many people worked hard and put a lot of effort and love into creating this video. Don’t be afraid to share that journey with your audience. Consider creating a behind-the-scenes (BTS) video or blog post to bring your audience into the experience. 

4. Measure Video Success 

An explainer video can provide value to your audience for years. For this reason, consider measuring the initial engagement boost you receive from launching your video across marketing channels. Compile this data within the first couple weeks of launch. 

Then, continue to periodically measure the success of the explainer video as part of your ongoing marketing plan. You might use a few different analytics tools to do this:

• Google Analytics: A tried-and-true way to review the success of your content, especially when embedding video on your website. 
• YouTube: This social media hosting platform provides basic analytic data for tracking general video engagement.
• Your video hosting platform: Detailed video analytics and data provide a lot of valuable information. Private video hosting platforms often include tools that make measuring the return on your investment easier. 

SproutVideo, for example, allows you to view the usual data (i.e. impressions, plays, watch time, engagement, and more). However, we also collect engagement data for every single video play. This data allows us to provide you with a heat map of video engagement to investigate what people watched, re-watched, or skipped.

Quick Tips for Explainer Videos

Looking for some quick advice? Here’s the TL;DR on how to make a great explainer video:

• Get to the point. Present your product’s main value proposition within the video’s first 30-45 seconds. 
• Focus on the value proposition. What is the ‘why’ behind your product or service? Showcase the benefits and transformation rather than features (in most cases).
• Invest in the explainer video. This video is the most valuable content asset at the top of your sales funnel. Produce a professional product to see a return on investment. 
• Launch across marketing channels. Include an explainer video on your homepage, sales pages, social media, newsletter, paid ads, and more. 
• Measure your ROI. A private video hosting platform, like SproutVideo, provides detailed information about video impressions, engagement, and much more.

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